Nuclear Energy: Destruction on Jackass Flats

One continuing nightmare of the atomic age is the possibility that
somewhere, some time, a nuclear
reactor may go out of control and blow itself to bits like an
overheated steam-age boiler with its safety valve tied down.
Builders and promoters of reactors insist that this is highly improbable,
but the Atomic Energy Commission wants more facts  just in
case. So last week it loosed the controls of a reactor and let her blow.

The reactor was a Kiwi, an obsolete experimental nuclear rocket engine
built at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and used only for brief
tests....